storm. >> yeah. this is not a pure snow. in fact, this is the worst type of storm because it may have every type of precipitation. we'll track this storm. it would be here by the morning commute next monday. the models have been trending colder which is more going to lead us to thinking maybe a weren't rei mix in the metro area, again not a pure -- wintery mix in the metro area, again not a pure snow. we could see rain or ice and it may end as snow monday night into tuesday morning. it's a monster storm hammering california bringing beneficial rains. as it tracks off to the east and it will move eventually into the middle mississippi river valley, big fresh arctic blast of air begins to ooze down from the plains states and the models are having a hard time resolving this question. as the storm tracks eastward, how far south this arctic air comes down. that could equal ice monday morning and during the day monday. that's something we'll have to watch for the next several

days. meantime tonight just cold, 30 already in gaithersburg, frederick, 34 in leesburg and manassas. tonight look for clear skies, very cold, 14 to 24, winds light from the south 5 to 10. most of the roads are dry. you have a couple of piles of melted snow on your driveway. that could be ice in the morning. be careful walking the kids to the bus stop and getting the paper early in the morning. if you drove in this morning's traffic, if you not what a mess it was. there were a -- you know what a mess it was. there were a bunch of accidents around the metro today and a relatively minor crash was the trigger for this rush hour snarl. traffic was backed up from springfield to college park. so comes the big questions now, could this morning's snow- related gridlock have been avoided? did school and highway officials make the right call? scott broom is in montgomery county with an accountability check. >> reporter: here in

montgomery the company, maryland, and in neighboring prince george's county this morning there was no delay called for by school officials, but thousands of kids and teachers and staffers were late anyway because of the mess on the roads. where were the salt trucks? >> today we were stuck in the same traffic as everybody else. >> reporter: the maryland state highway administration said 250 crews were in the d.c. region hours before the first flakes fell before down today, but once the snow started a full rush hour was underway. >> there was a lot of volume like a normal rush hour today. so we were stuck behind those vehicles. >> reporter: the outcome, gridlock east-west highway in silver spring one example of a slanted skating rink and students in montgomery county taking to twitter, photos stranded in snow waiting for delayed buses, epic fail tweeted one kid. would be it easier on state highways if schools had delayed or canceled? on well, there's no question the less volume on the

roadways, again whether it's -- i don't want to say just schools, but in that area there's a lot of government offices. >> this was one of those days where the weather hadn't arrived yet. the federal government stayed open. schools stayed open and i am sure it made it more challenging for our plows. ultimately we thought there really wasn't enough snow to cancel school. a two-hour delay wouldn't have bought us anything. we felt the best thing to do was open school on time. >> reporter: so back to the maryland state highway administration, what about pretreating the roads? well, they said they did pretreat some roads last night and there was a lot of residual salt left over from yesterday's storm in the middle of the day, but temperatures were in the mid-20s on the pavement this morning and the fact is even with pretreatment it doesn't do any good if you can't follow up once the snow starts falling and lay some salt down and the trucks were just jammed in traffic like everybody else. that was the situation this morning. reporting live in rockville,

scott broom, wusa9. of course, the weather could be to blame for this accident. crews had to rip off the roof of this car to free a man trapped on kensington parkway just before 10:00 this morning. the man likely hit the wall in front of the post office causing that car to flip. the driver is being treated for serious but not life threatening injuries. he is expected to be okay. then there were several crashes along connecticut avenue in bethesda this morning. traffic along that stretch of road is difficult on a sunny day, but add a thin blanket of snow and that added to the anxiety. one of the big surprises this morning was that the major school districts decided against a delay. you heard from montgomery county school officials in scott broom's report. peggy fox has reaction from parents in northern virginia. >> reporter: fast falling snow hit at the worst possible time, the morning rush, sending cars skidding and crashing and that meant gridlock. >> everyone looks forward to a

nice two hour commute on a 17- mile journey. >> reporter: a four car collision in arlington at carlin springs road backed up traffic for 6 miles. route 50 was blocked for an hour and a half. >> i actually left home early today hoping to get into work earlier and i'm glad i did because i think i'll make it maybe just in time. >> reporter: many parents and students across the region were surprised when all of the large school districts decided to start on time today. >> i think that was a little risky. it was very slippery outside. i think it at least should have been a delay. >> i've been up since 2:45. the snow didn't start coming down till 6:10. >> reporter: fairfax school's chief operating officer decided against a delay because forecasters told him that would have put students in the worst of the bad weather. do you think it was the best we could do? >> if i could take it back, i would really contemplate the two-hour delay longer. given the information i had it was the best information i

could make at the time. >> reporter: he said he's listening to all the feedback and will consider it for the next storm, but several parents say it was the right decision in loudoun county. >> permanently i think that's great. coming from colorado they very rarely took a snow day. >> reporter: here in prince william county four school buses got into crashes this morning all caused by other vehicles sliding into the buses. only one of the buses was damaged so much that it couldn't continue and had to transfer its students into another bus. now that sunny skies are back maybe the only frozen white stuff we see next week -- >> we're going to open march 5th. >> reporter: -- will come in an ice cream cone. >> rain or shine, well, given a snowstorm. plenty of you were upset about today's traffic mess. >> we gave you a chance to sound off. >> reporter: how frustrating has this been? >> no complaints.

it's a proper winter. i come from london where we get a dreary time, whereas this is proper snow, proper cold, did make any journey to work rather difficult this morning, very half traffic. i couldn't get my bus. my wife had to give me a lift. kids were late to school. it was a bit of a disaster, but overall no complaints at all. >> based on the weather, the snow is very bipolar. >> delays are adding up and we have some problems for one grout of commuters who use the rails. >> -- group of commuters who use the rails. >> it was a little slow this morning. i think it would have been better served if there was a couple hour delay. >> this last storm was definitely denver weather which means that this weather belongs in the center of the united states. the continental divide which divides the country both ways, this weather is supposed to be there. this weather is not supposed to be on the east coast, okay? >> we want to know what you think. should the schools have been

closed? do you have a nightmare commute? head over to the wusa9 facebook page and fell us all about your day. in fact, you can start a conversation any time you want 24 hours a day. a followup to that mail carrier attacked while on his route yesterday, he's out of the hospital now, but as hank silfverberg reports, this third attack on area postal workers in three months is raising serious concerns about their safety. >> reporter: the mail was delivered again today in this northeast neighborhood where a postman was beaten up and robbed yesterday by two masked gunmen who tied him numb his truck. the postal -- up in his truck. the postal inspection service said his personal belongings were stolen and they retrieved coves that might have opened mailboxes. >> -- keys that might have opened mailboxes. >> reporter: you retrieved them meaning? >> we found them. >> reporter: the u.s. postal

inspection service is offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who can help them get an arrest and conviction on an attack on the postal worker here yesterday. there has been increased attention to crimes against postal workers since tyson barnett was attacked and killed while working his route after dark in prince george's county in november. >> we will not rest until the individuals who commit these crimes are brought to just tips. >> reporter: any indication these are related in any way? >> again, this is an ongoing investigation, but there's no reason to think that any of these crimes were connected. >> reporter: the latest postal carrier is a fixture in the community here along webster street and hawaii avenue and a local church or. st both the u.s. postal service and letter carriers union express concern about the safety of their workers on the street with the postal service advising their carriers to be alert and careful of their own personal state of on their routeds. the suspect description in -- on their own personal routes.

the suspect description is somewhat vague driving a tan colored late '80s conversion van. >> if you have any information on this case, please call the u.s. postal inspection service, 877-876-2455. caught on camera metro drivers running red lights even in busy intersections. see what happened when russ ptacek showed video to metro inspectors at 5:30. >> and an astronaut nearly drowns in a spacesuit. we'll explain what happened. >> i'm meteorologist topper shutt, inch and a half on the weather terrace, almogone now. that high sun angle melts stuff. let me show you satellite picture radar combined. we cleared out nicely. there goes our snow from this morning. we'll come banack d look ahead to the next big storm. stay tuned. >> reporter: i'm surae chinn at the prince william county courthouse where a judge has found probable cause in the alleged abuse

giant ice jams are creating dangerous conditions across the country. people living in indiana, illinois and pennsylvania say they've never seen anything like it. ice jams are blocking rivers causing serious damage and raising concerns about flooding. warmer temps and rain forced some of those ice jams to buckle last week and creep up onto shore. >> it's not typical. that's for sure. >> we are looking at something that looks very still and calm now, but at any time it could just cause massive problems with a breakup and start flowing. >> a power plant is heating up thousands of gallons of water and pumping it back into an ice jammed river in illinois. the hope is the higher temperatures will diminish the floods when the ice eventually melts, but with a new arctic blast settling over the midwest that is not expected to happen any time soon. >> it's going to stay cold. i mean essentially average or

below probably to the first little bit of march, which by the way is saturday, so not that long. >> hello spring. >> you get ice around like that, you'd be in a panic for a quick thaw and heavy rain. that would be a disaster. for us just a cold night. we'll start with the totals on snowfall, about 1 to 2 ines. that was about it really. vienna had 2 inches, gaithersburg had 2 inches, got a report in north potomac of about 2.2 inches, baden about 2.6 inches, 1.5 in our weather terrace, pretty much all gone now and down toward prince frederick, maryland, you folks had about an inch. so do you think it's been a snowy february? we're now up to over 11 inches at national which is almost twice the average monthly snowfall for february, which is our typically snowiest month. the guy who thinks snow belongs over the divide, february is our snowiest month in the east here and what i think is just as interesting, it snowed 8 of the 26 days of february.

that kind of blows my mind. that's almost 1/3 of the days we've seen measurable snow. let's start with a live look outside, our live michael and son weather cam, down to 35, dew points in the single digits, relative humidity 34%, indoor relative humidity about 15%. 34 college park, 31 reston, 32 leesburg, dumfries 37, 35 in waldorf. even colder tonight, could be an icy patch on the driveway. most of the roads are dry. if you see anything wet, it's ice. bus stop temperatures 14 to 30 and then bright but blustery on thursday. you will need your scarf on thursday with the winds. for tonight clear skies, very cold, light wind, low temperatures 14 to 24. now temperature in the morning sunshine but very cold, hat, gloves and scarf, teens and 20s, winds not a problem in the morning, but by afternoon

blustery, winds really pick up northwest 10 to 20. so mostly sunny, yes, highs near 40, yes, but wind chills will be in the mid-20s to low 30s pretty much all day. so don't let the temperature fool you or the bright skies. dress for a winter's day tomorrow. it's going to be very blustery. we'll break this down. 19 at 5:00, 20 at 7:00. these are downtown temps, too upper 20s at 9:00, mid-30s by 11:00 and upper 30s by 1:00, the wind 16, 17 miles an hour but debating with myself should i go breezy, windy? i went breezy, but it's going to be very close to windy. next three days, even cold are friday, 31, clouds coming in -- colder friday, 31, clouds coming in later and saturday 44 with a rain or snow shower, keep whatever february outdoor plans you have. sunday clouds come back in, maybe a shower late, mild sunday 409 or 50. then some of the arc -- 49 or

50. then some of the arctic air tries to ooze south. could see rain, ice and snow ending in snow, colder tuesday 34 and wednesday very cold, might not make freezing again with sunshine next wednesday. the abuse case in a woodbridge daycare is getting closer to trial now. surae chinn tells us what happened at the hearing. >> reporter: the attorney representing kierra spriggs makes no comment as his client walks out of the courthouse accused of two counts of child cruelty. her co-defendant sarah jordan is accused of spraying a child in her face who was afraid of water with a hose on full blast. child protective services reported it was oftentimes for jordan's amusement despite the child's screaming and crying. in testimony today two former employees spoke about alleged repeated mistreatment last year

at the minnieland academy at the glen in woodbridge. they said jordan tripped a child on purpose and snapped rubber bands on children's wrists and laughed while the children cried. spriggs is accused of stepping on a child's feet because she was mad the child wasn't wearing shoes. , biting a child's finger and is accused of hitting children with objects until their knuckles were beet red. we talked with two parents in january. >> it's more risk. >> both women need to be 234 ms. -- it's horrific. >> both women need to be in prison. >> reporter: the judge said the abuse does not have to result in physical injury. >> in my daughter's case, she stopped talking completely. >> reporter: child protective services say jordan and spriggs encouraged aggressive behavior while the defense attorneys suggest this was corporal punishment and appropriate discipline. in the end the judge found probable cause to move the case

to circuit court. the attorney james mccord who is representing more than a dozen parents offers this statement. "the wheels of justice are firmly in motion." in manassas surae chinn, wusa9. >> those caretakers could face additional charges involving more children. that grand jury meets april 7th. nasa is revealing details about a dangerous spacesuit leak that nearly drowned an astronaut. luca farmatana was on a spacewalk when water began to leak into his helmet. the italian astronaut said he couldn't see, hear or speak and it was like wearing a fish bowl on his head. an american astronaut finally guided him back into the international space station. >> you could see some of the water floating away that had built up inside luca's helmet, helmet off and luca safely back inside. >> nasa investigators released a report today citing another leaking issue with the same spacesuit a week earlier.

they say the details rrounding the failure were not properly reported up the chain of command. a bill allowing businesses to discriminate certain customers could become the law of the land in arizona. so is it an anti-gay law or does it protect religious freedom? we'll debate that issue a little later. >> plus we'll explain why some people are furious over a new painkiller about to hit

today's snow and ice can only mean one thing,more potholes. i was dodging them left and right all the way here today, but we here at wusa9 want to help save your car and your nerves. so if you see a pothole that needs fixing, shoot us an e- mail. go to tellwusa9.com. if you can get a picture of it, send that to us, too. in our health alert tonight a new powerful painkiller set to hit the market and a plot of folks are outraged right now about -- lot of folks are outraged right now about it. a coalition of over 40 healthcare and consumer groups are urging the food and drug administration to revoke the approval of zohydro, 10 times more powerful than vicodin,

many concerned this will add to the prescription drug abuse market. >> unfortunately the fda acting recklessly approved this drug last year allowing it to come on the market against the strong advice of an advisory committee that said this should not be approved at this time. >> the manufacturer says zohydro is safer than other medications in the same class because it does not contain acetaminophen. it is scheduled to hit the market next month. new research shows a prenatal blood test is very effective in detecting gene mutations, much more than standard screenings. the study is published in the new england journal of medicine and includes results from over 2,000 women. the test poses no risks and may be one day offered to all pregnant women. speaking of this, which is the second day of fda panel meetings in gaithersburg about the future of three parent ivf. the process combines dna from three people to create embryos

that won't have mutated genes to help avoid conditions like blindness and epilepsy, but some say the creation of so- called designer babies goes way too far and is a step toward human cloning. others say it is a scientific marvel that could improve overall quality of life of some. coming up virginia's new governor does something about the tax on hybrid vehicles. >> plus the forecasters got it right, so why was the commute such a mess this morning? erica grow gets us some answers. >> and metrobuses running red lights, more than 500 people have filed co

we're tracking another storm for next week. this is a bigger storm with more potential but not a straight snow, okay? it will arrive by the morning commute on monday. that's the bad news. the trends, colder and colder which would lead us to believe more of a wintery mix. that storm has a lot of moisture and potential. this one will gather some moisture from the gulf of mexico. we could see rain or ice ending in snow as we go through the day monday into monday nightues here's the storm way out hammering california. in fact, it's bringing much needed rain to california. then we have a new batch of arctic air. the two start tracking across the country. the low tracks essentially into the mississippi river valley. arctic blast slides into portions of iowa and then it moves just kind of southwest of

us. it's going to be very close to the metro area monday. that could mean ice. we will keep a close eye on this the next several days. checking up on our top stories, an elderly man dead after being struck by a school bus in silver spring. that accident happened this afternoon near the intersection of columbia pike and tech road. middle school students on the bus were on their way back to their school in laurel after a visit to the white house. they were not hurt. also from maryland to virginia this morning's snow made a mess of the morning commute. a thin layer of snow caused dozens of accidents and thousands of people to be late for work or school. and the u.s. postal service is warning postal carriers to be alert after yesterday's attack on a mailman in northeast washington, that victim a fixture in the community and also the pastor at a local church. there's been increased attention to crimes against

postal workers since a letter carrier was killed last november in prince george's county. caught on camera, red light cameras, and these are not isolated incidents. >> reporter: you're about to see the video and one man's complaint we received. this is max bennett. every day he goes by union station on his way to work and has documented what he's seen like on this day last july. >> kind of right about now is when the light's already red. so it's coming through and you can kind of see the crosswalk is already on. the red light hits and when the crosswalk turns on, only like three or four seconds. so when they're coming through, it's already been about 10 seconds. >> reporter: we saw there one cut it close. watch as it makes a left turn

onto ever street northeast as the light turn -- e street northeast as the light turns red and then goes through the the crosswalk while pedestrians have the walk sequence. wusa9 filed open records requests for complaints filed in 2012 and 2013 specifically referencing wmata buses running red lights. the results? more than 500 complaints. look at this 1 from february, 2012. it claims when confronted, the bus driver responded by flipping the bird and laughing. one of 13 complaints we identified of bus drivers responding with their middle finger up. bennett recognized this complaint as the first of nine he filed, this one dated march 1st, 2013. wmata recorded it closed june 4th. >> they kind of weren't really being responsive the. >> reporter: he says he's given up on getting answers. we haven't. >> we take complaints seriously for all violations. >> reporter: this is the

assistant general manager for bus services. he says safety is wmata's no. 1 priority. here's the issue. the person who witnessed that said he never heard how that was resolved. does that sit well with you? >> no, it doesn't. i think our customer service office usually tries to get back to the complainant and i would have to go back to the records with them to see if that takes place. >> reporter: he says he never heard back. will you check on that? >> i can do that. >> reporter: way matt a issued a statement saying their check -- wmata issued a statement saying their check showed it was responded to. >> i responded a few times asking for more information to speak to somebody. >> reporter: 0 matt asd the problem at bennett's intersection -- wmata said the probable at bennett's intersection was a green left turn arrow that was too short. this statement from wmata shows they made that request june 4th last year.

we timed the same green arrow four days ago lasting seven seconds. >> we're waiting for the results of that request. >> they're breaking the law and they're endangering people. at this point i wonder what will get a response and i kind of think it's somebody getting hit unfortunately. i think that's kind of the point where if i'm not hit, it's not really a big issue. >> reporter: wmata received more red light running complaints in 2013 than 2012 and there have been more accidents, too. per million miles in 2013 you had more collisions than per million miles in 2012. >> the prevent panel accidents, the ones that -- preventible accidents, the ones we feel we were responsible for dropped over 12%. the ones created by others increased by a sizable number. >> reporter: do you think the complaints and the accidents fit? >> we're running a lot more service. we're running more buses, so there's more opportunities, more people to complain.

>> actually just last week i had they've incidents in three days, so it really hasn't changed much in the past year. within >> reporter: wmata says they investigate each complaint but couldn't tally how many of those complaints were for their buses running red lights. >> we contacted the district department of transportation. officials say the turn light at massachusetts and e continues to be seven seconds during nonrush hour, but they tell us they extended that light to 12 seconds during rush. max bennett says that has not fixed the problem. i the tax on hybrid vehicles -- the tax on hybrid vehicles about to become history. during a visit to wtop governor terry mcauliffe eliminated the tax saying it will go away july 1st and didn't want to

penalize people for being responsible. >> we want people to be fuel efficient and import less oil from overseas. it just makes common sense and we in virginia want to be leaders and we should not be having these types of legislative items that are a disincentive to be doing the right thing. governor mcauliffe said he wanted to sign the legislation at wtop because a large portion of the 75,000 people who own hybrids in the state are in northern virginia 36789. robin thicke gets ready for his performance tomorrow. >> jessica alba comes clean about her light hearted addiction. >> and gas prices are up an average of 15 cents a gallon in the last month. we'll tell you why the pain at the pump is expected to get even worse. >> don't forget we're always on at www.wusa9.com and the wusa9 app. stay with us. we'll be right back.

trending now on facebook, a massive city destroying monster, many of you posting links to the brand-new godzilla movie trailer just released yesterday. >> the teaser does a great job of giving moviegoers a taste without spoiling the whole

meal. breaking bad's ryan cranston is just one actor in a star studded cast. it hits the theaters may 16th. robin thicke had to cancel a few shows because he lost his voice and some unforeseen circumstances. could it possibly be because he and his wife, actress paula patton, announced they were separating after nine years of marriage? >> that would be an unforeseen circumstance. >> i any so. trending on yahoo -- i think. so. trending on yahoo jessica alba saying acting is like a drug and she's addicted. alba likes playing bad girls or promiscuous women because she says that's the opposite of who she is. the oscars are sunday and you know what that means. those long and awkward acceptance speeches. >> trending on youtube a public service announcement for all the actors this sunday.

>> thanking everybody under the sun except the people that actually worked on the movie, mom, grand grandpa, your neighbor. >> stop it. >> jack nicholson you were great in that picture. why didn't you win? why am i up here? >> is it essential that when you win an award, you take this moment very seriously. >> that's pretty good. he does everybodies an award for impersonation. this video has gotten nearly 40,000 hits on youtube since it was posted a couple days ago, i'm sure a lot more now. >> i think they're going to keep them as long as they always do and then the music plays and they're still thanking and thanking. >> that's their sign to be quiet. religious freedom or is it discrimination? we'll debate a controversial law proposed in arizona.

>> good forecast, nightmare commute, right after the break erica grow hunts [ male announcer ] attention small business owners:

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tracking wusa9 first alert weather. >> the first alert weather team at wusa9 is always tracking. topper, erica, howard all called this morning's storm well in advance. >> the big question, why the travel trouble this morning? first alert meteorologist erica grow got us some answers. >> we in the first alert weather center knew today's morning commute could be messy. >> some snow will stick to the road because it will be before the sun gets up, so a yellow alert for wednesday morning. allow extra time. >> i issued the yellow alert on sunday. >> there could be snow showers for the morning commute on wednesday. that's why we're in yellow alert mode wednesday. >> yet this morning's minor snowfall caused major traffic headaches for d.c. area commuters. aaa says the treacherous morning mess was about timing and top early got it just right. >> more light snow, i think 1 to 2 inches will cover everything. timing 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. >> an accurate forecast all around and yet we still had big

problems making it look unexpected. this winter has been filled with similar stories. two weeks ago mayor bill deblasio caught the heat after a foot of snow fell and he decided to keep new york public schools open. >> there are times. 100% obvious you have to close schools if you have a huge amount of snow you know is coming, but i want to emphasize it is a rare act. >> he blamed the forecasts meteorologists pushed back. drivers abandoned their cars. kids were stranded at schools and once again meteorologists got thrown under the bus despite an accurate forecast. >> this was poor planning on the mayor's part and the governor's part, pure and simple. >> in the end the meteorologists won the twitter war. basically what is going on here is that it seems like maybe there is a disconnect between the forecasters and the emergency managers, the

government officials who make decisions based on the forecast. maybe it's worth looking into. >> also were just listen to us. your taxpayers' dollars pay for private firms to tell them what to do. if the private firm said it's not going to snow, they listen to them, not us. >> if they had delayed school, do you suspect we wouldn't have had the problems this morning? >> absolutely. i talked with john townsend from aaa earlier this afternoon and he said a two-hour delay would have made all the difference in the world. >> i feel like that every day, start every day two hours later. in the meantime are we done with the snow? >> it's february. we're done for a while, okay? >> till next week. >> yeah. we're done for the month, how's that? >> nice. two days left in the month. >> let's start with a live look outside, our live michael and son weather cam, down to 35, high temperature 38 today, very

dry air mass winds north, northwest at 17. we see relative humidity in the 34% range, dew point in the single digits, dry air mass. you still need to add moisture to your home this time of year. temperatures, they're falling pretty fast, 30 in rockville, 31 reston and fairfax, 32 in ashburn, leesburg, college park 33, 34 waldorf, down in dumfries toward dale city and woodbridge 33, 34. so even colder tonight, might be an icy patch on your driveway. anything you see wet or black will be ice tomorrow morning. why? because bus stop temperatures 14 to 30. bright but blustery thursday. you'll need a scarf all day, high temps near 40, but it will feel like it's in the 20s and 30s. for tonight clear skies, very cold, 14 to 24, winds south at 5 to 10. by morning mostly sunny, very

cold start. you need the whole complement tomorrow, hat, gloves, scarf, teens and 20s, winds out of the south at 10. then they switch in the afternoon, mostly sunny, breezy, cold, wind chill 25 to 32. now you got winds northwest, 10 to 20 and gusty and high temperatures near 40, so a little different story tomorrow. oakland will hold in the teens, 30 in cumberland, 34 hagerstown, 42 culpeper, sunshine for the mountains and coast tomorrow, 39 leesburg, manassas, fairfax, reston, mclean, probably 38, 39, 40 downtown. gaithersburg and rockville and clarkbsurg 39, 39 in frederick, low 40s into southern maryland and a small craft advisory posted in the afternoon for the bay and tidal potomac. 19 at 5:00, 20 at 7:00, city temps, upper 20s at 9:00, mid- 30s at 11:00 and upper 30s by 1 p.m. next three days probably not going to make freezing on friday, 31, clouds coming in

friday night, saturday a mostly cloudy or variable cloudy day, rain or snow shower possible, high temps in the mid-40s. sunday not so bad, mild, highs near 50, showers possible sunday night or evening and monday we're watching that storm, could be rain, rice, turning to snow ending in snow tuesday and then colder wednesday with high temperatures in the low 30s. that's with sunshine. wusa9 news at 6:00 is just a few minutes away. derek is live in the newsroom with a preview. >> tonight a lot of folks want to be d.c. mayor, but who is really bad enough to whoop vincent gray? jack evans says it's him. muriel bowser says it's her. our bruce johnson sorts out the arguments. >> also human sex trafficking is on the rise and a local lawmaker is leading the charge tofigure out how to stop it. >> and then there is this, an altercation between a maryland police officer and a man who's

videotaping arrests. now there's an internal investigation about this little wrestling match. i'll see you at 6:00. rising gas prices in tonight's consumer alert. after a drop in december the cost of gas crept higher in january and there's been a major bump in the last couple weeks. analysts say one reason for the spike is that gas supplies are down because many refineries shut down this time of year to get ready for the busy summer season. >> between now and april we're likely to tax on another 40 cents a gallon. in some areas it would be 30. in other areas it would be 50. >> it may be some time before drivers see relief. gas prices are expected to peak in may before falling again. a law that would allow businesses to refuse service to customers based on religious beliefs sits on arizona governor jan brewer's desk. the state legislature passed a law allowing owners to turn away essentially gays, lesbians and transgender individuals. the bill was pushed by the center for arizona policy.

the group says the proposal simply clarifies existing state law and is needed to protect against increasingly activist federal courts. brewer has not indicated whether she'll sign the bill saying only she'll do the right thing for arizona, obviously a hot button issue that has a lot of people talking today. reverend hagler calls it discrimination and joins us now along with travis weber with the family research council who says it's not about discrimination but it's about religious freedom. welcome to you both. travis, i'm going to read a quote from the arizona capitol times. "in most of arizona and most states in the u.s. businesses don't need a license to discriminate against gays. it's already legal. there are no state laws banning a business owner from firing an employee from a job for being gay nor stating that a business owner cannot deny service to a person based on sexual orientation." so why do you think they need this bill? there's already a law on the books? >> this bill really is about a few specific points related to

religious freedom in businesses. all the bill does is set in stone arizona's religious freedom restoration act and make two clarifications to make explicit that businesses could call the law as a defense if needed if they were sued by someone claiming discrimination. actually it does not allow them to turn away anyone and refuse them for service on basis of religious permits. it actually prevents further needless litigation to clarify that. >> pastor, what do you think? >> the problem is it codifies discrimination and allows people to make objective decisions. they voluntarily decided to enter into the arena of commerce and at the same time now they want actually to have the protections to discriminate against someone and the reality is once you begin to sort of move down that road no matter what you're talking about, whether it's religious freedom or not, who do you stop? where do you stop at? do you end up discriminating against this group or that group saying it's a violation of my religious principle?

well, we respect people's religious principle. do it inside your church, mosque, synagogue. don't bring your bias and discrimination out into the public arena, particularly in regards to the commerce. >> pastor, when it comes to churches because part of this law as i was reading this says it is to consistently try to protect not only businesses, but also churches. so one of the things that one of the legislators were worried about was that in arizona should gay marriage become law there, should churches then be forced to player rei gay couples? what do you think? >> -- to player a gay couples? >> that is not the case here in washington d.c. where we do have same sex unions. churches and synagogues and mosques can do what they have always done. they make that decision based on their own religious convictions, their own theology and so that stays in place because there is religious freedom where a state really cannot impose on the practice of a house of worship or house of faith, but on the other

hand, we don't want to say in this society that is pleurallistic that you have people from many different walks of life that somehow we go back to pre1963 where you can discriminate against someone with impunity. that's what we're really up against because what we're trying to do is roll the ball backwards instead of go forwards. >> travis, i'll let you have the last word here. >> that's not actually the case and in terms of integrating business and faith, we've been moving down that road ever since the country's founding. folks have always run their businesses as dictated by their faith and the law is only relates to that to a certain degree. frankly, that's always been the case. it's only coming out now upon the vocal position of a few who would want to compel people on the basis of their beliefs to violate their conscious. >> when historically that faith position that people hung onto has been anti-black, has been anti-women, has been anti-

hispanics, and it continues down the line. so the reality is that the fact is that we should not codify discrimination in any form, shape or fashion, particularly in a pleurallistic society. when a business owner enters into the arena of commerce, they've done that voluntarily and by doing that voluntarily, they should at least uphold the values of a pleurallistic society. this is like the stand your ground law against ghazi, lesbians and bisex -- against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. >> we're simply looking at protecting folks exercising theirreligions which they have always done. >> pastor, this legislation began as a response from a handful of cases in other states where business owners were sued because their religious beliefs conflicted with them not wanting to give service to gay couples, for instance, in new mexico a

photographer said her religious beliefs precluded her from taking photos for a gecking and in colorado a baker -- gay wedding and in colorado a baker refused to bake a cake for the gay couple citing religious beliefs. >> once you enter into the arena of commerce, you should have a nondiscriminatory policy. that's what we've been fighting for in the civil rights movement because at one point people could discriminate against people, other groups of people with impunity without any damage coming to them. the fact is yes, folks who operated in the public arena, they should be sued. >> this is a debate that will continue on. this is a map of the pressure points on my feet.

i have flat feet. i learned where the stress was at the dr.scholl's foot mapping center. then i got my number, which matched the custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support. find your closest foot mapping center at drscholls.com. i'm a believer. right now at 6:00 an early warning, you thought this morning's commute was bad, but we could have another messy one come monday. >> closest challenger, those trying to unseat d.c. mayor vincent gray fight over who is in the best position to replace him. >> and a controversial conversation, police investigate one of their own for this altercation with a man on the other side of the camera. >> oh, that wonderful blast of snow we had this morning is also ushering in some very cold air tonight and just to make it better for you, we're tracking an even bigger storm next

monday morning. >> wonderful blast? who wrote that? first alert meteorologist topper shutt is in the weather center. >> this will be a very complicated storm, more potential, more moisture and right now it's taking aim on us on monday. we're looking at the next storm by the morning commute monday, should be in here. it's trending colder which means more of a wintery mix. it won't be a straight snow. the storm has a lot of moisture and potential. we could see rain or ice and it could end as snow late monday night into tuesday. the storm will track it all week across the great basin now. it moved into california earlier. it will move across the rockies. meanwhile an area of arctic air begins to slide southward and as that happens the question is how far south will this arctic air slide if the storm tracks essentially into the mississippi river valley sunday and then to a point south and east of us and the arctic air will be very close to the immediate